The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1887-05-13

"No, baas," be said, with q curious grin
"that Ia how I reckon. II anybody beat
Jantje. Jantje cuts notch upon the stick
and every night before he goes to sleep b,
looks at 1t, and says; 'One day you will
strike that man twice who struck you once
and 70 on, baa& Look what a line of them
there are, baas. One day will pay them al
back again, Baas Frank"
In another minute old Hans Coetxee came
and announced that II was time to be moving
Accordingly the whole party got into theil
carts or on to their shooting horses, az tn,
case might be, and started. Frank Mule,
was, John noticed. mounted as usual ON hi,
fine black horse. After driving for more
than half an hour along an indefinite kind Of
wagon track, the leading cart, In which wa,
old Hans Coetzee himself, a Malay drive,
and colored Cape boy, turned to the left
across the open veldt, and the others followed
in turn. This went on for some time, till al
last they reached the crest OF rise that com
manded large sweep Of open country. and
here Hans halted and held up his hand
whereon the others halted, too On LOOKING
out over the vast plain before him, John dis.
covered the reason. About half a mile be.
meath them was q great herd of blesbuck
feeding, 800 or more Of them, and beyond
them again another herd Of some sixty OF
seventy much larger and wilder looking ami.
mails, with white tails, which John at once
recognized as vilderbeeste. Nearer to them
again, dotted about here and there ON the
plain, were couple OF dozen or 90 of grace.
full yellow springbuck. .t
Then council of war was held. which re-.
suited in the men on horseback-amonp
whom was Frank Muller-being dispatched
to circumvent the herds and drive them
toward the carts, that took up their stations
at various points toward which the buck were
likely to make.
Then came pause of a'equarter of an hour
or so, till, suddenly, from the far ridge of the
opposite slope, John saw couple of puffs of
white smoke float up into the air, and one of
the vilderbeeste below roll over on his back.
kicking and plunging furiously. Thereon the
whole herd Of buck turned and came thunder
ing toward them, stretched in a long line
across the wide veldt; the springbuck first,
then the blesbuck, looking, owing to their
peculiar way Of holding their long heads
down as they galloped, for all the world like
herd Of great bearded goats. Behind and
mixed up with them were the vilderbeeste,
who twisted and turned, and jumped into the
air as though they had gone clean off their
heads and were next second going clean on
them. 1t is very difficult, owing to his ex-
traordinary method of progression, to dis
tinguish one part Of a galloping vilderbeeste
from another; now it Is his horns, now his
tail, and now his hoofs that present them
selves to the watchers bewildered vision, and
now again they all seem to be mixed up to-
gether. On came the great herd, making the
ground shake beneath their football; and
after them galloped the mounted Beers, every
now and again jumping from their horses to
fire shot into the line of game, which gen.
orally resulted in some poor animal being left
sprawling on the ground, wherein the sports
men would remount and Aontinue the chase.
Presently the buck were within range Of
some of the guns in the carts and regular
fusillade began. About twenty blesbuck
turned and came past John, within forty
yards Of him. Springing to the ground, he
free. both barrels Of his express at them as
they tore past-alas and alas! without touch
ing them. The first bullet struck under their
bellies, the second must have shaved their
backs. Reloading rapidly, be fired again at
about 200 yards range, and this .time one
fell to bis second barrel. J But ~ q Z ttls5k
it Was chance shot; he had fired at tfieymSt'
buck, and be had killed one ten PAGES In front
Of him. The fact Of the matter is that this
sort of shooting is exceedingly difficult till one
knows how to do it.
Jumping into the cart again, and leaving
the dead blesbuck to look after itself for the
present-not very safe thing to do in .
country where there are SO many vultures-
John, or rather Jantje, put the horses into
gallop, and away they went at full tear.
Every few minutes or SO they would pull up
whenever the game was within range, and
John would spring from the cart and let
drive, and then jump in and follow on again.
This went on for nearly an hour, in which
time he had fired twenty-seven cartridges and
killed three blesbuck and wounded Wider
beeste, which they proceeded to chase. But
the vilderbeeste was struck in the rump, and
a buck SO wounded will 60 q long way, and
60 very fast also, and some miles had been
got over before he began to rest, only starting
on again as they drew near. At last, on
crossing the crest Of little rise, John saw
what at first he took to be his vilderbeeste
dead. A second look, however, showed him
that, although it was a dead vilderbeeste, it
most undoubtedly was not the one that he
had wounded, for that wos standing, its head
hanging down, about 100 yards beyond the
other animal, which had, no doubt, fallen to
else's rifle, or else been wounded
farther back and come here to die Now the
lay within 100 yards Of them,
and Jantje pointed out to John that his best
plan would be to get out Of the cart and
creep on his hands and knees up to the dead
animal, from the cover Of which he could get
a good shot at his own wounded bull.
Accordingly, Jantje having withdrawn
with the cart and horses out of sight under
the shelter of the rise, John crouched upon
his hands and knees and proceeded to carry
out his stalk. He got on all right till he got
quite close to tho dead COW, and was just con-
himself on the prospect Of an ex-
cellent shot at the wounded bull, when sud-
denly something struck the ground violently
just beneath his stomach, throwing up a
cloud of earth and dust. He stopped amazed,
and as he did so heard the report Of rife
to his right. Scarcely had he
realized this when there was a sudden COM
motion in his hair, and the soft black felt hat
that he was wearing started from his head,
apparently Of its own accord, and, after
twirling round twice or thrice in the air, fell
gently to the earth, and as it did 80 the sound
of a second report reached his ears. It was
now evident that somebody was firing at him;
49,